Week In Review: Making Progress Toward Finding Cures

Week In Review: Making Progress Toward Finding Cures

04.26.13 | By

Innovators are progressing, and as a result, so is our understanding of the work they are doing. This week, PhRMA President and CEO John Castellani spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’sNational Minority Quality Forum and Health Braintrust Awards Dinner, where he discussed both the progress we’ve made toward finding treatments, as well as how perceptions around health care have evolved. Specifically, he noted that there has been a shift in the way people view the value of medicines, stating:

“The U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently updated its methodology for calculating the costs of Medicare policies. It now reflects the positive effect of prescription medicines on total medical costs. CBO will for the first time account for the savings from medicines that reduce the need for other costly medical services, like hospitalizations, acute care and long-term care.

Josie Martin, Vice President of Public Affairs, also noted the progress being made in the industry by discussing the medicines currently in the pipeline. She emphasized that she is “excited by the promising, innovative research” currently underway because the pipeline represents the “expertise, ingenuity and determination (aka passion) of thousands of individuals in the biopharmaceutical ecosystem - company scientists, academic researchers, clinician trial volunteers and more.”

Matt Bennett, Senior Vice President of Communications summed it up best, emphasizing that although many of the drugs in development will not make it through the testing and clinical trial phase, we won’t stop trying. Medicines that fail to complete the approval process still represent a step toward a medical breakthrough or an improvement on an existing therapy.

Continue to check The Catalyst and Facebook and follow us on Twitter to learn more about the progress we’re making to find treatments so patient can live healthy, productive lives.